Lucas says McGrath is committed to restoring its industry-leading position.

“We intend to introduce a range of strategic initiatives that are designed to improve the business, including initiatives relating to learning and development, data driven technology improvements and assessment of select acquisitions,” he says.

“While the current property market conditions are challenging, we believe this will continue to generate some very real opportunities as more agencies and sales people will be seeking to join larger, well capitalised, quality branded groups like McGrath. Company owned agent numbers returned to growth over the fourth quarter of FY18, and that trend has continued into FY19.

“Our strategic plan has, as its centerpiece, the goal of growing McGrath’s franchised and company offices across Australia over the next five years.

“We will be concentrating our growth in predominantly franchised offices along the Eastern Seaboard, with particular focus on Victoria and Queensland.

“We will also be strengthening our presence in our existing company owned offices with an additional focus on the growth precincts around Western Sydney.”